Well, despite being one book ahead at the end of October in my Reading Challenge Goal of read/listen to 150 for 2018, I turned out to miss my goal by FOURTEEN books!  What a shame!  My only excuse is that November and December were both a heck of a month with stresses and strains with making the move to the new house (more of that in an upcoming post) and so very little time to read.  And so far, January is promising to be just as busy as we are still settling in and TraderVic is determined to get everything shipshape as quickly as possible.

Still, I did keep reading and fourteen books is not that far off my goal and 2019 is a new year, so let's go for broke and aim for 

ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY BOOKS for 2019! 

Yep, you read it right - 160 books!

I had better get cracking, hey?

Here is wishing you and yours a wonderful new year.

Cheers to 2019!

hugs, 

P.S. The best of the books above were:

•     The Faith Martin books (natch!)
• Year One by Norah Roberts - loved the narration on this one although it was very reminiscent of The Stand by Stephen King, which I re-read after reading Year One)
•     Grey Sister by Mark Lawrence (Book 2 in a great fantasy series)

and American Princess was pretty interesting, too.

P.P.S. I haven't forgotten the winners of my latest Girl's Nest Giveaway - I will get it all posted soon (just as soon a I move it all across to the new house)

P.P.P.S. I promise that I will post some more updates to show you all the finished house very soon and, of course, maybe a cross stitch post or two, as well (lol!).

OCTOBER READING UPDATE....

Extra Woo Hoos this month! I am still one book ahead now in my Goodreads reading challenge after reading another twelve books in October.  Feeling like I might actually reach my 150 goal this year!  Only 25 to go! Fingers crossed.

To give you a bit of a rundown, we have a couple of political thrillers - "The President is missing" and "The Senator". The former was not bad and the latter less good, I would have to say.  There were the three Holly Linton series  novels: "No shelter", "The Devil you know and  "Hollow Point", I quite enjoyed this thriller series although they could have been better written. "Colleen" was a very ordinary western romance whilst "Bed, Breakfast and Bones was a very ordinary cosy crime novel, the first in a series but I don't think that I will be bothering with the rest.  "Wolf's Bane" was also a rather poorly written urban fantasy however "Ghost Detective" was a better written one with an interesting premise.

The best of them all I have saved for last - "Home Fire" by Kamila Shamsie.

I listened to this on Audible and I just loved the power of the narration and the story - so strong and well, powerful!  I can highly recommend this novel. It is an amazing reworking of "Antigone", very apt for our times.

So, that is all for me for now.

hugs, 

P.S. Please don't forget to check out my 

            A SORT OF/SORTING GIRL'S NEST GIVEAWAY #7

Just click on the pick below.

September Reading Update....

Woo Hoo! I am actually one book ahead now in my reading challenge after reading twelve books in September.  Feeling like I might actually reach my 150 goal this year!  Fingers crossed.

These are the twelve books I read in September:

A mixed bunch - the Kat Cotton books are urban fantasy (you might notice that when I find a series of books I tend to latch onto them and read as many as I can in a row) and the Dale Mayer ones are about psychic romances (I suppose that is a genre). "Letters to my yesterday" was okay but not brilliant (that was a freebie from Netgalley) but definitely the best of the bunch is definitely "Never let me go" by Kazuo Ishiguro. A beautifully written dystopian novel.

If you would like to see what I read in June, July and August, just click below.

June, July, August 2018 Reading Update

Not sure how much help I am being on your reading journey this month but do keep on reading.

hugs, 

Reading update_June, July and August....

As you can see from the pic from my Goodreads 2018 Reading Challenge, one of the many things that I was busy with whilst I was on my blog hiatus was reading!  ... and as you can see from below it was Reading with a capital "R"!

Since my May update I have read fifty-five books! Wow! 

Most of these have been read on my kindle (I love reading on a kindle as I find that I can read really fast - I am one of those people who reads by taking in a chunk of text at a time rather than one word at a time - and a kindle really facilitates that type of reading) whilst others I "read" by listening to them on my mobile via Audible (I also really love Audible - lots of great books to listen to whilst driving or doing housework - magic!).

If you look closely, you can see that a number of the books that I read are part of various series (I do love a good series  - or sometimes even a not-so-great series for often when I embark upon a series (book or television) I feel some sort of loyalty to it and compelled to keep reading/listening or watching - lol!). 

Here is a rundown on a few of them:

There was a murder mystery series (DI Greene series) by Faith Martin set in Oxford, England with a great female protagonist, which I really enjoyed.  

An apocalyptic survivalist series (The Survivalist by Dr Arthur T Bradley) which, whilst quite violent at times is perversely quite enjoyable since it is about the end of the world! 

Barbara Bretton's magic series was lots of fun, set in a sweet knitting shop in a magical viillage in the U.S.A. (Shh! Don't tell the rest of the world about the magical beings who live there).

For a couple of my funnest Audible listens were the newest instalments in the Maggie Hope series by Susan Elia MacNeal, "The Prisoner in the Castle".  This is part of a series about a young woman in England during WWII trying to do her part for the war.  Whilst this was not the best in the series, it was entertaining and there was a very strong nod to Agatha Christie's "And then there were none".  The other listen was to the latest novel in the Her Royal Spyness series by Rhys Bowen, "Four funerals and maybe a wedding".  Again, not the strongest offering but still fun! Her Royal Spyness tells of the adventures of Lady Georgiana Rannoch, 35th in line for the throne, during the 1930s.

But probably the best three reads in the lot are:

The Trauma Cleaner by Sarah Krasnostein - the fascinating true story about a transgender person who has the most interesting life story and does a job about which most of know nothing.

The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris - the memoir of the man, who as a prisoner in Auschwitz, tattooed all of the numbers on the prisoners.

Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng - as The Guardian describes it: "A story of morals and motherhood set against the mystery of a burning house."

The first two are Australian novels whilst the third is American.


I hope that all of this helps all of you on your reading journeys.

hugs,